January 14, 191 5 j 



NATURE 



549 



to be a charge upon the public." "Ultimately" is 

 a good word, seeing that the expenses of the survey 

 were in 1852-3 approximately 5500Z., while sixty years 

 later, in 1913-14, they were about 17,875/. 



This short-sightedness was not confined to the 

 Board of Trade, for the Treasury- with due solemnity 

 replied that in their opinion " the utility of (science 

 and art) institutions is great in proportion as they are 

 -elf-supporting." 



If this test were applied to our existing science insti- 

 tutions there are few which could claim to be really 

 of great utility. 



Of more value was the statement made by the 

 Board of Trade further on in the letter already men- 

 tioned that the "assistance received from Parliament 

 will be applied to the general good of all." 



With these expressions of policy the Science and 

 Art Department started on its career. The sums 

 annually taken in the Estimate for its manifold activi- 

 ties gradually grew from year to year from 44,476!. in 

 1S53-4 to 600,781/. in 1898-9. In the following year 

 the amount granted is included in the Estimate for the 

 Board of Education. 



For many years the science grants were awarded 

 on the results of examination and attendance. Before 

 a school could claim payment for its work the students 

 had to receive a certain minimum amount of instruc- 

 tion from a recognised teacher, this amount of instruc- 

 tion being spread over a certain number of weeks, so 

 as to enable the instruction to be given -systematically, 

 with time for home-work and home-reading. Nothing 

 was paid on account of those students who did not 

 pass the examination at the end of the course, and 

 the amount paid depended upon the grade of success, 

 varying from a minimum of i/. to a maximum of 5/. 

 On the results of these examinations the National 

 Scholarships. Royal Exhibitions, Whitworth Scholar- 

 ships and Exhibitions, were also awarded and the 

 examinations are still temporarily retained for this 

 purpose. 



It is of course easy to criticise this system but at 

 the time it was instituted, examination was much 

 more popular as a universal test of attainment than 

 it is at present. At a time when children of tender 

 vears were being coached to pass an individual ex- 

 amination in reading, writing, and arithmetic not to 

 mention a number of additional subjects, it was only 

 natural that the same tests should be applied to the 

 older students found in evening classes. 



A centralised examination meant also the publication 

 of official syllabuses for each of the branches of science 

 in which examinations were held. These no doubt in 

 time tended to cramp and stereotype the teaching but 

 this ill effect was minimised by the fact that the 

 examination papers always contained more questions 

 than the candidate was permitted to answer and he 

 was thereby enabled to select those parts of the 

 subject which had formed the principal portion of his 

 instruction or in which he was specially interested. 

 It should also not be forgotten that in the case of the 

 great majority of the candidates, certainly in the case 

 of those above 16 years of age, the examination was 

 looked forward to as a necessary crown to the session's 

 work. With much that was feeble and almost 

 worthless, and in spite of cramming and learning by 

 rote, there was a substantial amount of good grain 

 winnowed from the chaff and many a man can trace 

 back his love of science or his success in life to what 

 he learnt in science classes and to the rewards he gained 

 through this much maligned examination system. 



It must also be remembered that with few exceptions 

 the examinations were in pure and not applied science, 

 the underlying idea being to foster the study of the 

 scientific principles on which our productive industries 



NO. 2359, VOL. 94] 



depend and to leave the practical working out of these 

 principles to an enlightened self-interest. Nowadays 

 applied science seems to have swept all before it and 

 in the desire for quick results the need of a firm 

 foundation of scientific principles is apt to be ignored. 

 The Science and Art Department stuck steadily for 

 many years — perhaps too tenaciously — to the pure 

 sciences and only extended its assistance generally to 

 applied science when the system of payment on attend- 

 ance and results gave way to the sj'Stem of payment 

 on attendance alone. 



One of the early results of the change was distinctly 

 beneficial. Under the examination system the only 

 practical* work in science for which grants were obtain- 

 able was in chemistry' and metallurgy. When pay- 

 ment on attendance alone was established grants for 

 practical work in physics were obtainable and phj'sical 

 i laboratories began to be built and equipped. Especi- 

 ally was this the case in the day schools which had 

 grown out of the science classes established in the 

 elementary- schools. In these schools — the organised 

 science schools or schools of science as they were 

 called — 13 hours each week had to be devoted to 

 mathematics, science, drawing, and manual instruc- 

 tion and the science had to include a definite pro- 

 portion of laboraton.' work. The success of these 

 schools so far as their rapid increase in number and 

 in attendance was concerned was undoubted. Not 

 only did the so-called higher grade elementary 

 schools adopt the system but numbers of endowed 

 secondarv schools followed suit. For these latter the 

 requirement of a definite amount of time per week 

 for science and art work was often irksome and the 

 close similarity of the curriculum in the higher grade 

 and in the secondary school led to fears of com- 

 petition and overlapping. 



Inquiry showed that these fears were largely 

 imagfinarv, but as at the time the State was developing 

 its scheme of assistance to secondary' education, the 

 organised science school became officially unpopular 

 and the discover},- that school boards could not legally 

 earn.- on such schools was the deathblow to system- 

 atised science teaching in connection with elementary 

 dav schools. The attempts to soften the blow by the 

 establishment of higher elementary schools was un- 

 successful in spite of much official pressure. The 

 original minute under which these schools were to 

 work was a mar\-el of restrictive officialism and 

 though the stringency of the original regulations was 

 subsequently relaxed the higher elementary school 

 never prospered and nothing has yet eflfectiviely taken 

 the place of the defunct organised science school. It 

 remains to be seen whether the new junior technical 

 schools, which after years of repression have forced 

 their wav into official recognition and favour, will fill 

 the gap in the education of the elementary school boy 

 or girl who, having gone through the ordinary 

 elementary school course, has had neither the desire 

 nor the opportunity to cany his training further in 

 a secondary school. 



Building Grants for Local Science Scliools. 



.Aid was first granted towards the building of 

 science schools in 1868, grants in favour of schools 

 of art having been in existence since 1856. The rate 

 of grant was half-a-crown per sq. ft. of floor space 

 up to a maximum of 500J. The grant was with- 

 drawn in 1897, but applications for aid received before 

 that decision was published were accepted, and the 

 claims so acknowledged were not finally liquidated 

 until 1902. Thus, for a period of thirty-four years 

 State aid was given towards the provision of suitable 

 buildings for science instruction. It is of interest to 



